Autism

Essential Reads Chosen by the editors

Think Beyond the Label: Society’s Hopelessly Mixed Message

By Stanton Peele on February 9, 2010 in Addiction in Society

The question is, how long can we stand as a (psychological) nation divided - where we pick some traits to determine people's existences, and others to disrgard as we assist them in joining the rest of us?

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Think Beyond the Label: Society’s Hopelessly Mixed Message

By Stanton Peele on February 9, 2010 in Addiction in Society

The question is, how long can we stand as a (psychological) nation divided - where we pick some traits to determine people's existences, and others to disrgard as we assist them in joining the rest of us?
Read More
HBO's "Temple" tells the story of a person

By Eileen Garvin on February 9, 2010 in Sister on the Edge

If you didn't catch the "Temple Grandin" HBO premier on Feb.6, check out one of the many showings this coming month. You'll be glad you did. Read More
The autism-vaccines myth: The impact of the media

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on February 8, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

Clearly, the media can serve to protect the public interest but more often than not they fail to do so. Read More
Diametric Cognition Passes Its First Lab Test

By Christopher Badcock, Ph.D. on February 4, 2010 in The Imprinted Brain

A key prediction of the diametric model of the mind has been confirmed by laboratory experiment: subjects with autistic versus schizotypical traits perform oppositely on a test of local versus global processing. Read More
"Lancet" Takes It All Back: Vaccines and [No] Autism

By Jean Mercer, Ph.D. on February 2, 2010 in Child Myths

Today's announcement that the prestigious British medical journal (no caps), "The Lancet", has retracted a published paper is a welcome one, certainly. Read More
4 Quick Reactions to the MMR/Autism Study Retraction

By Jonathan Levy on February 2, 2010 in The Interactive World

CNN and everybody else is reporting that the 1998 study linking the MMR vaccine to autism published in the medical journal The Lancet has been retracted.
Four quick thoughts / reactions to the story: Read More
The role of adult siblings

By Eileen Garvin on February 2, 2010 in Sister on the Edge

Welcome to Sister on the Edge.
This blog examines autism from the periphery, so to speak. Like so many siblings of people with autism, autism was the dominating feature of my childhood and I grew up along side it. Read More
I am an adult and I think I may have Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). How and why should I get diagnosed if in fact I do have AS?

By Chantal Sicile-Kira on February 2, 2010 in The Autism Advocate

Usually I write mostly about children or adolescents on the autism spectrum. Read More
Dishonest, discredited, and absent: Wakefield is thoughtless at home

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 31, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

Among the dozens of charges the GMC deemed proven against Wakefield are that he provided a research proposal to a lawyer seeking to sue vaccine manufacturers for causing autism. Read More
Self-harm or a request for help?

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 27, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

In some cases problem behavior seemed to suggest that the person was asking for attention or access to a preferred activity or escape from some activity they found unpleasant. Read More
Wading Through the Minefield of Autism Treatments

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 24, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

Professional testimonials of a treatment's effectiveness, in the absence of controlled demonstrations of the outcome of therapy, should be considered as unreliable at least partly due to the financial benefit of providing service. Read More
I think my child may have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). What do I do?

By Chantal Sicile-Kira on January 21, 2010 in The Autism Advocate

What should parents do if they suspect their child has an autism spectrum disorder? Read More
The Genius of Detective Fiction

By Christopher Badcock, Ph.D. on January 21, 2010 in The Imprinted Brain

Detective fiction is the distinctive literary genre of modern times—and arguably was the inspiration of Freud. The diametric model of the mind explains why and how this is so.

Read More
Is Eliminating Casein and Gluten From a Child’s Diet a Viable TX for Autism?

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 20, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

Going from such selective acceptance of food to eating other foods often takes quite a long time. The only situations in which I would recommend restricting access to food would be if the child had a documented food allergy or excessively consumed food. Read More
Would you want to know??

By Lindsay M. Oberman, Ph.D. on January 20, 2010 in The Autism Spectrum

If there was a prenatal test for autism or a test that would tell you that you are a carrier of a gene (or several genes) that would predispose your future children to autism, would you get the test? Why or why not? Read More
Are children with ASDs more likely to have GI problems?

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 16, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine produced enterocolitis, injuring the gastrointestinal lining of children who would subsequently develop autism. One clear implication of this suggestion was that children with autism should have more gastrointestinal problems than children who are typically developing. A recent study strongly suggests that this is not true. Read More
Conversations on Creativity with Allan Snyder

By Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D. on January 13, 2010 in Beautiful Minds

Professor Allan Snyder, Director of the Centre for the Mind at the University of Sydney, believes a 'thinking cap' may one day be possible, which would allow enable us to remove our ordinary filters of perception, and thereby improve memory, reduce prejudice, and make us more creative. Here I have a conversation with the award winning scientist who is inventing ways to access nonconscious savant-like skills, to enhance creative thinking, and to unravel the ingredients of extraordinary success. Read More
A New Take on Genius

By Christopher Badcock, Ph.D. on January 13, 2010 in The Imprinted Brain

The diametric model of the mind rules out co-morbidity of autism and psychosis in the main, but rules it in as an explanation of genius. Read More
Isn't Behaviorism Dead?

By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D on January 12, 2010 in A Radical Behaviorist

A radical behaviorist, you may be thinking to yourself, why would they let one of those in here? Behaviorism was thrown to the curb long ago. What could this outdated perspective possibly add to our understanding of autism? Well, Skinner's Radical Behaviorism is thriving and the application of behavior analysis for the treatment of autism is the main reason for this. Read More
Bias, Bettelheim and Autism: Is History Repeating Itself?

By Lynne Soraya on January 10, 2010 in Asperger's Diary

"Autism caused by whiteness and affluence." When this headline popped up on my Twitter page, I had to roll my eyes. The subject of the tweet was a recent study which found 10 clusters of autism throughout California, each in an area with a large concentration of white, highly educated parents. The researchers attributed the results to differences in access to health care, rather than race. Others haven't been so cautious. Read More

Autism Blogs

A Radical Behaviorist
Observations and comments about autism, behavior, and learning.
By Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Asperger's Diary
Life through the lens of Asperger's Syndrome.
By Lynne Soraya
My Life With Asperger's
How to live a high-functioning life with Asperger's.
By John Elder Robison
Positively Autism
News and advice from an educator's perspective
By Nicole Caldwell
Sister on the Edge
A sibling's-eye view of autism in life, family, and culture.
By Eileen Garvin
The Autism Advocate
Practical tips and musings on raising children and teens with autism.
By Chantal Sicile-Kira
The Autism Spectrum
A cognitive neuroscientist explores autism, Asperger's syndrome, and related disorders.
By Lindsay M. Oberman
The Interactive World
Techniques for helping your autistic child and the latest news about autism.
By Jonathan Levy

Autism Basics

Autism is a complex syndrome that resulting from abnormalities in the brain's development. Common features include impaired social interactions, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, problems processing sensory information, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. A recent study of a U.S.

Go to the Autism Spectrum Basics page for more on Autism Spectrum including:

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